The Trio Triumphant
by Ashlyn-i
Summary: The final in the Trio. The teenage spies are moving on, but some shadows from the past are hard to dispel. The Trio are on the trail of a terrifying truth and everybody's darkest secrets are coming back to haunt them. Can the team emerge triumphant?
1. Prologue

Hey guys, I'm back for the final stage of the Trio Trilogy! Thank you everyone who has stuck with me for the last two years. I'm going to try and make this the best for you!

Disclaimer: I don't own MI High or any of the characters from the show. I do own the Trio!

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><p>It was quiet on campus except for the general snoring coming from the low lying bunkers at one end, in which young agents whiled away the hours until the first spark of sunlight gleamed on the horizon and the resounding claxons signalling sunrise woke them up.<p>

It was still over the battle grounds, where agents were toughened by the bitter rains or scorching suns as they ran across the uneven ground during numerous drills. Their senses were honed during the ammunition rounds and their minds sharpened by the various challenges set before them. It was tough on a battle field, so it was tough on this one too.

But the battle field did not promise death, as many others elsewhere in the world did. The agents were taught not to fear death. There was something that they were taught to fear more, the failure that the battle field promised. Every challenge was set out to test every skill, because failure in the real world might be ten times harder than failure on the battle field; therefore the punishments on the battle field were ten times worse than anything you might face in reality.

To a beginner, they might not seem so bad: scrubbing out the campus kitchens, skipping a meal every so often, another four hundred laps of the field (okay, nobody liked that one). But it was what came afterwards than the agents learnt to fear. Because if one person got punished, so did the rest. It was the isolation, the angry looks, the mutterings behind your back that agents learnt to fear because there was nothing in the rules to stop other agents doing something nasty to you in revenge. It couldn't be life threatening, but if there was something agents learnt on the battlefield, it was how to be creative with what little they had. Ice cubes in the beds was a popular one, but another was sinking the helpless victim in waste deep mud and leaving a phone just out of reach. You had to tell the rescue team once you got back to base, but the agent got the message quickly. Fail, and suddenly, all team efforts disappeared. Nobody cared if you lived or died if you were a failure.

It was soundless in the communication tower, nothing moved in the technology blocks. But as you advance around the corner and walk slowly towards the dojo and the fitness training centre, there is a sound just on the edge of hearing: a cry and the sound of something hitting something else. Someone is awake on this still night, the first quiet night in months.

There were two people still up as the moon reaches its highest point in the sky, two women to be more precise, a young teenager girl and a young adult woman to be even more accurate.

And the woman was trying to beat the girl around the head with an iron bar.

The girl rolled and dodged as the woman lunged forwards. The girl tried to gain advantage by knocking the woman off balance, but the woman recovered too quickly and swiped at the girl's head, coming narrowly close to scraping her scalp.

'What's the point?' she jeered, 'you'll never beat me.'

The girl rolled away, trying now to put distance between her and her attacker so she could have room to think, but the woman covered the space too quickly and swung again. In desperation, the girl grabbed the oncoming weapon, but the woman's strength proved too great for her and she fell backwards.

She glanced up and rolled away just as the iron bar smashed into the ground beside her. It smashed the other side and the girl found herself trapped, the woman standing over her.

'Give it up, Lizzie,' the woman said, raising the bar up, 'you're dead.'

The young Lizzie looked up defiantly into the woman's face. 'I'm not dead until I'm dead, Jade,' she said.

'Then you're a fool,' Jade spat. She brought the bar down.

Lizzie rolled her body up and onto her shoulder. One foot hit the falling bar and the other drove into Jade's stomach. Jade doubled back, winded, as Lizzie spun and flipped upright. Her smile was not there for long as Jade's iron bar hooked around her arm and sent her spinning again. Lizzie tried to keep upright, but the iron bar tripped her up. She turned it into a forward roll and then a round house kick that Jade blocked with the bar. She tried going in for a punch, but Jade locked her wrist with one hand and the bar and pulled the young girl into her.

An elbow caught Lizzie in the face. A foot made contact with her shin. Her fist found Jade's eye, her other hand hit her funny bone and her knee collided with her opponent's stomach as Jade dragged her closer.

But Jade had an advantage, she had the iron bar. The thick metal pipe fell heavily on Lizzie's shoulder, dislocating it. Lizzie cried out in pain as Jade dragged the dislocated arm and flung her into the centre of the room. Pain, like sharp nails, drove Lizzie forwards. She found a wall and sank to the floor.

Jade crossed the room and pointed the iron bar in Lizzie's face. 'Do you concede defeat?' she asked the panting young girl.

Lizzie glared up. 'No,' she said.

Jade sighed and the bar swung round.

Lizzie's hand caught it mid-swing. Jade froze. She tugged on the bar, but it would not move. Lizzie, concentrating hard, slowly began to climb up the wall. She had almost managed to stand when Jade let go of the bar. She made a slashing movement and chopped at Lizzie's dislocated arm. The pain shot through Lizzie again and her concentration shattered. The bar began to fall and in one swift movement, Jade caught it and swung it at Lizzie's head.

It was all over.

Lizzie dropped to the floor.

Panting, Jade slowly lowered the bar from where it had stopped. She glanced at her watch and then out at the dark sky. 'It's very late,' she said, 'you should be in bed.'

'I work better when I've had no sleep,' Lizzie muttered, feeling her dislocated arm, 'give me the chance of a lie in and I'll take it and good luck to whomever it is getting me up in the mornings.'

'Usually that's me,' Jade said. She dropped the bar, bent down and slowly reconnected Lizzie's shoulder with her arm. Lizzie hissed with pain and began to move it as Jade moved away.

'That hurt.'

'Good,' Jade said, 'maybe it will teach you not to put yourself in such a stupid position next time.'

Lizzie stuck her tongue out at her mentor. 'Just you wait,' she said, 'just you wait. Someday, I'll beat you.'

Jade laughed. 'I don't doubt that Lizzie,' she said with a smile, 'I don't doubt that at all. Were you using your gifts at the end there?'

'If I have them,' Lizzie said pointedly, 'then why can't I use them?'

'I'm not stopping you,' Jade said with a laugh, 'good luck to whomever tries to stop you. But you can't rely on them to get you out of a situation; you're not strong enough yet. As soon as I broke your concentration, you were an easy target. Your fighting skills need to be strong enough so you can withstand anything thrown at you.'

'Yes, Jade,' Lizzie said gloomily, heading towards the bench on which their water bottles lay.

'And another thing,' Jade said, following her young pupil across the room, 'if they offer you the chance to surrender and live, then take it. I know that they teach you that you should never give it, but if conceding defeat will keep you alive, then take it.'

'That's not what you were telling me a few weeks ago.'

'Well, a few weeks ago, I didn't know any better.'

Lizzie turned. Jade looked on the verge of tears. 'I'm sorry Jade,' she murmured, hurrying back to her tutor.

'Why?' Jade was whispering. 'Why did it have to be him?'

'You mean Edward…'

'Oscar's growing up without a father,' Jade was growling under her breath, 'I'm going to be without a husband and MI9 can't find a decent way of compensating us. I'm still working full hours. They can't understand. "Never surrender" they say, "failure is never an option". Let me amend that statement: "Failure is always an option and if it means you live, you should take it".'

'Jade Dixon Halliday!' Jade blinked. Lizzie was standing before her, hands on her hips, an expression of pure fury on her face. 'How dare you?' she exclaimed, 'how dare you give up so easily! The old Jade wouldn't give up! The old Jade would still be fighting! Who is this crying coward I see before me?'

'Stop right there,' Jade began, but Lizzie cut across her.

'No, you stop! You told me yourself, they have just lost track of Edward. "Missing in Action" as I recall. That doesn't mean he's dead!'

'Edward wouldn't have surrendered,' Jade whispered, 'even if it meant they killed him.'

'Then why are you?' Jade blinked. Lizzie removed her hands from her hips and asked in softer tones, 'why are you giving up already? It's been two weeks, he could still be found. There is still a chance, Jade.'

'It hasn't been two weeks…'

Lizzie frowned. 'Pardon?'

'It hasn't been two weeks. It's been two months. I… I didn't want to worry you…'

'Jade,' Lizzie protested, 'I want to be your friend. I want to help you, like you help me. You've been supporting me since I first arrived in this hell on Earth; let me be the same to you as you go through hell.'

Jade chuckled and ruffled her young pupil's hair. 'Thank you, Lizzie,' she said quietly. 'I just… I just wish that I could do something. I wish I could find out if he is still alive.'

'You'll find a way,' Lizzie said reassuringly, 'I'm sure there's a way. In fact…' Lizzie paused before saying, 'I might have one.'

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><p>:D<p>

And we're off!


	2. Training

Pheww! This is getting hard for me to keep writing. I never realised that the final year of school could be so stressful. Too many exams! (headdesks)

Anyway, this chapter is more about the situation the team are now in.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the MI High characters. The only characters I own are the Trio, Jessica, my baddy (who will of course be returning) and Marina, but you can borrow the last one, she's not important.

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><p>The dawn bell rang out as the first rays of sunlight peeped over the distant horizon. In the low bunkers, several sleepy heads rose a few millimetres off their pillows, then flopped back down to try and catch a few more seconds of sleep before their dorm doors were flung open and they were rudely awoken by the man in the doorway, or a bucket of cold water dependent on how responsive they were.<p>

After changing, they would then change into their uniforms and head out to the large field for a 1000 metre run before stumbling into the canteen for breakfast. They had half an hour for that, and then they lined up on the field again for that day's assignment.

Sometimes it would be target practice over long distances, sometimes stealth missions against one another in random teams, or maybe learning the basics of communication, or how to drive an escape vehicle, or hacking techniques. There were sometimes physical checks, which they had to do on each other and themselves, basic and advanced first aid, or physical training in martial arts or other fighting challenges.

There would be a break around one in the afternoon for a small lunch before an assault course to warm up for the afternoon's activities. Dinner wouldn't be served until nine, when the agents would stagger in and happily eat practically anything that was put on their plates. Then it was an hour or so of relaxing before they hit the showers and bed, to try and sleep as much as possible before the sun rose again the next morning.

Every day, it would be something new, something exciting.

That's what Oscar Cole, MI9 young agent, loved about his father's new training programme.

Oscar's father was Edward Dixon-Halliday. Less than a year ago, he and his son had been reunited after both had infiltrated SKUL and almost destroyed the organisation. Afterwards, Edward revealed he planned to set up a group of elite agents that he wanted his son, and his teammates Carrie Stewart and Rose Gupta, to be a part of.

That was how Oscar found himself at an old training camp MI9 used around fifteen years ago. It had been closed down after an argument had arisen in MI9 about the human rights of the agents who take the course and the pressure and stress they suffer during the camp. It had been countered by the fact that missions are difficult and agents need to be prepared for anything. The camp was closed whilst this was discussed, but no-one got around to re-opening it until Edward took it off the Head of MI9 to train his elite agents.

Several other faces Oscar recognised had been elevated to the elite agent standard training camp on the recommendation of the Head of MI9 and several other high ranking MI9 officers, including Rose's old mentor Lenny. There were Lewis, Violet and The Worm (another group of teenagers who had been brought together under the MI High training scheme), a deaf agent called Amber (also under the same programme) and Jessica Evens, younger sister of top MI9 agent Lizzie Evens, who happened to be one of Oscar's best friends.

Lizzie Evens (codename Lee), the youngest ever MI9 agent to do their adult training scheme, was now one of the highest ranked agents in MI9 history, along with her teammates Luke Jones (aka Shifter) and Max Hardy (aka Oracle) . Since their recent return to MI9, no-one has seen much of them, except for the odd report. This did not worry Oscar. If there was anything he had learnt it was that the Trio, as they were known, could look after themselves.

Oscar roused himself today with no anticipation of anything out of the usual happening. He shared his dorm with Lewis and the Worm. The latter was already up and on the dorm computer, probably hacking the security mainframe again.

Hacking was the topic the Worm excelled in. However, he had been in the training camp three months already and had yet to break through. Oscar had a sneaking suspicion that this was because the mainframe had been constructed by Oracle, the computer expert in the Trio. He had overheard his Dad talking with someone about the computer network a few months ago, who had asked to speak to Rose afterwards. Although his dad had denied, Oscar believed that it was probably Max, who had developed a rather obvious crush on Oscar's clever companion. Another thing he had in common with the Worm Oscar had realised two days into the course.

Oscar put his hoisted himself up on his elbow and peered bleary eyed at the clock. It was six thirty. He'd had practically a lie-in.

As Oscar clambered out of his bunk, he grinned as he remembered the Worm's first few desperate attempts to attract Rose's attention. First it had been roses (they had been plastic), then a computerised message in her documents (shortly after that, the server's security strengthened dramatically) and since then he had been sending her coded messages of love for her to decode. As far as Oscar knew, they had gone in the bin, squashed underfoot in the field or given to Carrie to giggle over.

Oscar guessed that the Worm's recent attempts to hack the computer network were to impress Rose. He doubted they would succeed, but Max could probably do with the challenge.

Oscar's other dorm mate lifted his head a little off the pillow, grunted at the time and dropped back down. Oscar had learnt that Lewis wasn't the best in the mornings. The wisest thing to do would be tactfully wake him up and help him out of the room.

Unfortunately, his dad beat him to it.

Edward Dixon-Halliday, like all training organisers before him, would give his student approximately five minutes after the dawn bell to be at least out of bed before he came and woke them up. He had had great fun on the first day arousing his son with a welcoming bucket of water. Oscar had learnt since then that the best thing to do, if you really wanted a lie in, was to get up, wait for Edward to come and go and then climb back into bed to dose. Usually by then, he was already awake, which was the point in Edward's point on view.

Unfortunately, Lewis was a slow learner.

Edward flung open the door and, seeing Oscar and the Worm already up, turned his attention on the only occupant of the room still in bed. Oscar gulped.

'He was just about to get up…' he began. Then Lewis snored.

Edward raised an eyebrow. Oscar sighed and nodded. Edward gleefully hefted the bucket of water he had been carrying just in case he had needed to use it and tipped it over the snoozing agent. Lewis awoke with a splutter, shaking water droplets from his hair.

'Wakey wakey!' Edward called cheerfully, and then he turned and glared at the Worm who was conspicuously shutting the computer down, 'what had been doing so early this morning?'

'Nothing,' the Worm said slyly.

Edward glared at him for a moment and then shrugged, 'well hurry along, we've got something exciting lined up for today.' With that, he hurried from the room.

Oscar raised his eyebrows as Lewis, still dripping, descended the ladder to the floor. 'Must be exciting,' Oscar said absentmindedly, 'I've never seen him like that in a long time.'

The Worm left in order to give Oscar and Lewis to change into the traditional camouflage coloured clothing agents in training wore. Their black gear stowed alongside it in the wardrobe the three boys shared was for training missions or if a mission was given to them by the head of MI9.

After lacing up their combat boots, feet up on the Worm's bed, the two lads exited their room to make their way to the field. It would be a 1 kilometre run around the outside of the field before breakfast, which was usually porridge. It was lumpy and sticky, but compared to the chilly November air, no-one complained about having warm meals. Lewis had once remarked it would be nice to have a fry up one morning. He had egg mixed in with his usual porridge the next morning. He hasn't commented about breakfast since.

Oscar and Lewis joined the end of the line waiting by the field. Oscar glanced sideways and grinned at the dark skinned girl beside him. Carrie grinned back. This was her favourite part of the morning. Carrie had always been a sports fanatic. A kilometre run every morning was just up her street; in fact it was what she had run practically every day up and down her street when they had still been at school.

It was to do with Carrie's gymnastics training. As the martial arts expert in Oscar's old team at St Hopes, Carrie had had to be at the peak of fitness, which luckily she always was.

Edward Dixon-Halliday arrived and strode up the line of agents to check their appearance and condition. He hid a smirk at Lewis's damp hair before nodding, the signal to start the four hundred metre run.

Carrie and Violet immediately went from standing to sprinting as they began their usual race around the track. Jessica was a couple paces behind them, jogging alongside Amber, in whom she had found a friend. Jessica had been stuck in SKUL since the age of seven so, although she was an expert fighter who could beat both Carrie and Violet at ease, she had never had a real friend. She was doing extremely well at Edward's new camp, something he was very pleased about. Any relation of the Trio had high expectations to fulfil.

Which was a little unfair, Oscar thought as he jogged with Lewis, because technically she wasn't related to Lizzie. As Oscar and his team had discovered over the summer, the Trio were all adopted after being discovered by an MI9 team penetrating the hideout of SKUL scientist Anthony Schmitz. Oscar had discovered more about the Trio's experiences in that hideout, although all of them were too young to remember it.

Carrie and Violet had now disappeared, quickly followed by Jessica and Amber. He picked up the pace. The cafeteria closed five minutes after the first agents arrived after the early morning run, so they had to hurry.

Three minutes later, the remaining four agents hurried into the canteen, Oscar and Lewis having hung back for Rose and the Worm. Oscar understood that Rose would not have been happy with him if he had abandoned her to the Worm's company. They collected their porridge and seated themselves with the rest of their group.

The girls were already discussing what might be happening today. Amber was signing about how Marina, the girl's early morning call and Edward's general secretary, was a little more rushed that usual. Oscar added that his dad had been excited when he had awoken them. This caused Lewis to make a comment about a bucket of water and what he'd like to be seen done to Edward, which made the girls giggle and Oscar scowl.

'Maria would never pour water over us,' Carrie said as she scraped her bowl clean.

'She probably doesn't find it as funny as Dad does,' Oscar said. Despite having a couple of months to get used to it, he still felt strange calling a living breathing person his father. For most of Oscar's life, his father had been a mysterious figure in the background, missing in action. Now he was back and Oscar's life had had another massive change. The last time he had had one of these, it had been when MI9 had broken into his home to arrest his Mum on the charges of being a double agent.

Oscar shook his head, trying to dispel the thought.

Breakfast bowls cleared away, the group set off across campus for morning exercises, ready for whatever Edward had planned today. To their greatest surprise however, Edward was not waiting for them at the usual position in the centre of the camp. Looking around, the team found nothing.

After half an hour had gone by and Edward had still not emerged, the group opted for someone to go looking in the hut Edward had set aside as his office, to find out what was going on. Before they had even voted in favour of him, Oscar knew it would be him. Rolling his eyes, he set off across the muddy circle towards the bungalow door.

He could hear voices inside. He knocked, politely at the door and waited until he heard his father's voice call for him to enter. Oscar opened the door and poked his head around it.

His father's office was spotlessly clean. It was tidied with the precision of someone with a military basis and organisation.

His father was seated behind the desk. He was on the phone to someone. He nodded at Oscar to enter. Oscar was afraid to do so. It seemed a shame to tramp mud over a floor someone has tried so hard to keep clean, until he noticed his father's footsteps from his own pacing. So he stood by the door until his father had finished on the phone.

'We're all waiting,' he said when Edward finally threw his mobile back onto his desk, 'we have been for the last half an hour.'

'Good,' Edward said with a half grin, 'it'll teach you patience.'

Oscar waited a respectful second, before saying, 'yes, but it was a little different from the usual routine. We were worried that we were forgotten about.'

Edward raised an eyebrow. 'You really think I would have forgotten about you?' Oscar smiled but didn't meet his eye. 'A break from the routine is a good thing,' Edward mused, now staring at the ceiling, 'which is why I'm giving you all the day off.'

Oscar blinked. He hadn't been expecting that.

Edward nodded. 'Yes, a break will do you all good. Then this evening, I'll share my exciting news with you.'

Oscar grinned fully now and reached for the door. Ideas were already streaming through his mind about what he might want to do today.

His father's voice broke through them like a ship cutting through ice. 'I've been to see Jade… your mother.' Oscar froze, his eyes fixed on the door handle. Edward wasn't looking at him either. 'I'm going back to see her today.'

'And?' Oscar asked in a hoarse voice.

Edward shook his head. 'Now is not the moment. Go and enjoy yourself. I'll tell you later, I promise.'

Oscar nodded, but his head was spinning. Slowly, he pulled open the door and stepped outside. He was surprised to see that everyone had moved. They were now crowded around the door, anxious.

'Well?' Violet demanded. Violet always liked to get to the point.

Oscar gulped, trying to forget about his parents. 'He said we could have the day off.'

Everyone's jaws dropped. 'The day off?' Carrie asked, 'just like that?'

'Yeah,' Oscar tried to sound just as confused as they looked like they felt. Inside, his head was reeling.

Everyone exchanged glances. Then Carrie said, 'cool,' and they all set off back to their dorms to find some casual clothes to change into. Oscar was last in the line, trailing behind, and thinking about his mother.

Jade Dixon-Halliday, ex-MI9 top agent, turned traitor for SKUL, who had also once been at this facility. It was here, Oscar remembered, that she had become acquainted with Lizzie. She had been Lizzie's personal tutor as the fourteen-year-old struggled to compete with some of MI9's most promising young agents, although one of those had been Stark, now Chief Agent Stark, and a complete idiot half the time.

Had Lizzie known then what would happen to Jade? Surely not. They had been friends then. Until the accident, a mission gone wrong, which had transformed the Trio, the reason they had disbanded. Oscar had always had this sneaking suspicion that his mother had been behind the kidnapping of the Hardy family, the reason that Max Hardy had turned against his teammates and caused the accident. But he had no proof and his Mum was in prison.

Despite his father's recent attempts to persuade him, Oscar would not go and see her. She had tried time after time to use their relationship to ruin MI9. He would not see her now.

Looking up, Oscar realised that everyone else had left him behind. Everyone that was, except Rose and Carrie. They were waiting at the edge of the path for him.

They smiled at him.

Oscar smiled back and hurried to join them. They were all the family he needed now. Them and one other person…

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><p>You should all know who I'm talking about. ;)<p>

Til next time! :D


	3. Day Off

Apologies that chapters are not coming very fast. Exams and revision is a nightmare. Univercity is a nightmare. When they say enjoy your school days, take my advice and ENJOY them. They are the last carefree days of your life!

Disclaimer: I don't own... that's kind of obvious after three blinking fics! I own the Trio and Jessica. And anyone else who pops up and you don't know.

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><p>Their day off was too short in most people's opinions. It is said that time goes quicker when you're having fun. Everyone was certain that this was true by the end of the day. It had seemed like barely an hour ago that they were pulling out from their scarce wardrobe jeans and t-shits that they haven't worn in months. Now they were situated in a little used lounge area, making the most of the comfortable sofas and warmth.<p>

Lewis had taken the opportunity to catch up on shut eye, his head resting on Violet's lap after he had slipped sideways and nearly fallen off the sofa. Violet was discussing with Amber the best way to take on one part of a challenge that Edward had scheduled for tomorrow. Rose was reading next to Carrie and as far as she could get from the Worm, who had been trying to get her attention all day. Said teen genius was sitting on the floor, the space around him taken up with his laptop, accessories and wires.

Oscar was watching Jessica phone her sister. Every time Jessica had a spare minute, she would scroll through the contacts of her mobile (which she was not supposed to have on campus) and then dial her adoptive sister's number, or one of her partners if she wasn't available.

Jessica pressed the call button and put the mobile to her ear. Upon seeing Oscar watching her, she lowered it and put it on speaker phone. A loud beeping filled the calm room. Then it went straight to answer machine as Jessica had half-heartedly expected. What she hadn't expected was the message left for her on it.

_Hey Jessie, _Lizzie Evens voice spoke into the quiet, _Max said you'd call so I'm leaving you this message as he also said I definitely wouldn't be available. I'm probably not; bit busy over the other side of the world at present. Will definitely call you as soon as I can, I promise, and I'll tell you all about it. Hope training's not too bad. If I remember correctly, it's a lot of early mornings and drills. But after the first few months you start doing mission challenges which are a lot more fun, trust me. One mine included going to South America in a race against others on the programme to collect this super rare medicine from some native tribe in the Amazon and be back to base first. So much fun! Stark nearly got eaten by a giant cobra. I should know; Luke dropped it on him. Stark was in a different team after all. Don't know how Luke managed to avoid getting eaten himself, but he was always so good with animals. Speaking of which, our self-proclaimed leader is currently glaring at me, so I should probably stop recording this now and get ready for whatever we have to do. Oh well, speak to you soon... oh, and if this is not Jessica, please ignore everything I've just said. I am rambling. Okay, say hi to Oscar and the others for me. Bye!_

'Stark nearly got eaten by a giant cobra,' was the first thing Oscar said as the longest answer machine message he'd ever heard drew to a close.

'That's not true, cobras don't normally eat people,' Rose interjected quickly, 'besides, cobras don't live in the Amazon. It was probably an Anaconda.'

'Do they eat people?' Carrie asked curiously.

'No,' Rose reassured her, 'they're venomous; they don't need to eat you to kill you.'

'That's not what I wanted to hear,' Carrie muttered. Everybody smiled.

'I hope you enjoyed your day off,' said a voice from the doorway. They all glanced up.

Edward Dixon Halliday strode into the lounge. He strolled around the backs of the sofas and then seated himself next to his son. Oscar turned from his position half draped over the edge of the sofa to sit facing his father, head of the new MI9 division and organiser of the hell they had been through for the last few months. It had been hell on their bodies at least, but they had all had a hell of a good time too.

Edward casually positioned himself to face the group and grinned at Jessica. 'Phoning family?' he asked.

Jessica nodded. 'I phoned Sally this morning to see how she was,' she said quietly, 'and then tried Lizzie but couldn't reach her mobile. Thought I'd try again now and got a very long answer phone message instead.'

'You left a very long answer phone message?' Edward queried.

'No,' Jessica corrected, 'she had left a message as part of her answer phone for me. Probably the longest answer phone I've heard. But it means she's okay because yesterday I got the usual "Not available now; please try again later, or not at all if you're my brother" so she must have changed it over the last 24 hours.'

'Oh, I know they're okay,' Edward said playfully.

'How?' Carrie asked.

'Because I had a conversation with Oracle only this morning,' Edward informed them.

'You can call him Max,' Rose told him, 'we know their names anyway.'

'Yes,' Edward dithered, 'but it's good to be professional when you're talking in terms of business.'

'Is this the exciting news you wanted to share?' Oscar asked.

'It is,' Edward said with a grin.

'Well?'

Edward sat back. 'Let's just say,' he said archly, 'the Trio are coming home.'

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><p>The two people burst through the double doors and carried on up the next flight of stairs. One was carrying a briefcase, in which a laptop was rattling around with the rest of the files, papers and general bits and pieces they had just stolen from the agents who were now chasing them up the thirty two floor building. The other was holding a small box close to her chest.<p>

The couple rounded another corner, heading for another flight of steps as the light above their heads shattered as the bullet flew over them. Another shot burst a window to the man's right. Despite knowing he could return fire, and probably be a better shot, the man continued as if nothing had happened. As if this was just the usual dash up a flight of steps and they weren't running for their lives after infiltrating a multimillion dollar company for information about an evil organisation planning on reviving an old practice both would rather could be forgotten about. And to their annoyance, the third member of their party was currently refusing to give them a hand.

'Where is that little brat when you need him?' the male muttered under his breath, twisting so as to avoid another onslaught of bullets.

'Shut up and run!' the female shouted, picking up her pace. Still muttering, the man sped up in order to keep up.

They were now reaching the top floor of the building. They met a couple of security guards who tried to block their way. The skirmish lasted approximately two seconds, and in that time the two managed to steal the guards security passes, allowing them full access to the building. Not that they need access to all the building. They only needed to get through one door.

They hit the last lot of stairs and found the door they were looking for. It gave little resistance to the ID and they burst out into bright sunshine. They ran to the roof's edge and peered over the top of it. The street was a long, long way down. And there was no sign of the promised helicopter to get them out of this mess.

Their pursuers swarmed out of the doors behind them. Now that they believed they had the couple trapped, they were no longer in a hurry. But they all kept their weapons up, just in case.

The leader of the pursuers stepped forwards. 'Return to us the items you've stolen and we will let you go,' he said in Japanese.

The girl snorted and turned around to face them. 'I believe that as much as I believe that England will win this year's World Cup,' she said with a light laugh, in fluent Japanese.

'These items are the only things stopping you from killing us right now,' the boy agreed. He was holding his briefcase over the edge of the building. One fatal bullet and all the work would fall a couple of thousand feet to the pavement below and would surely be lost.

Several of the men surrounding them hissed through their teeth, glancing at their boss for directions. The man looked into the air. 'Where is that idiot?' he asked the girl in English.

The girl merely shrugged. 'You know Oracle,' she replied, 'he's probably either stuck hacking their mainframe or he's been distracted by something else.'

'Eh?' one of the few men who could understand English responded, 'h-h-hacking mainframe?'

'Yeah...' the girl said simply.

'O-O-Oracle?' asked another. The girl nodded at him.

There were several looks exchanged before someone from the back shouted, 'you are the Trio?'

The girl, Lee, otherwise known as Lizzie Evens, grinned. 'Took you long enough,' she smiled. She turned to the boy, 'ready Shifter? I think it's time for plan B.'

Shifter, a.k.a Luke Jones, raised his eyebrows. 'Plan B?' he asked uncertainly, 'are you sure?'

'Nope!' Lizzie said, 'but it's either that or get shot. What do you think?'

'Plan B,' Luke agreed. They both climbed up onto the edge of the building.

'What!' the leader of their pursuers hissed, 'what are you doing?'

The two looked back at him. 'Plan B,' they said simply and with that, they jumped off the building.

* * *

><p>Will try and update. Really will. Hope you like it so far. ;)<p> 


	4. The Trio's Trouble

I'm sorry that updates are a little irregular and not as frequent as I had hoped. Final exams are stressful things, but seem to decide my future and so demand more attention than fanfiction does (gasps of horror) I know...

This chapter is focussing on the Trio. There will be several that do that; they are main characters after all, and what they do is important to the story.

* * *

><p>'<em>I think it's time for plan B.'<em>

_Luke Jones raised his eyebrows. 'Plan B?' he asked uncertainly, 'are you sure?'_

_'Nope!' Lizzie said, 'but it's either that or get shot. What do you think?'_

_'Plan B,' Luke agreed. They both climbed up onto the edge of the building._

_'What!' the leader of their pursuers hissed, 'what are you doing?'_

_The two looked back at him. 'Plan B,' they said simply and with that, they jumped off the building._

The two fell through the air, picking up speed at an alarming rate. Behind them, they could hear the shouts and curses of their Japanese followers as they watched their precious work plummet towards the ground.

Luke reached forwards and grabbed hold of Lizzie's arm. Her hand crept up and squeezed his. She glanced at him and then the hand reached out and grabbed hold of the air as if she was grabbing a long piece of rope. Slowly, far too slowly for them to realise, their acceleration towards the concrete pavement below decreased.

But they were still accelerating.

'If ever you wanted to do a last minute rescue,' Luke yelled in the direction of the microphone he was wearing somewhere in his jacket lapel, 'now would be good.' But he received no response.

'Luke,' Lizzie screamed, 'hold this.' She thrust her box at him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, taking the box in his spare hand as he did so. Lizzie reached out with both hands and tried to calm the air around them. In her eyes, it wasn't working. Then, so gradually she didn't notice it at first, the air rushing past the back of her neck softened.

But they hadn't enough time. The pavement was drawing ever closer. They were going to hit it.

It was around this point that time slowed down. It didn't exactly stop, but slowed considerably. Lizzie felt the air around them growing thicker as they continued to fall at the same rate, but the air around them was trying to resist, trying to make them slow down like the rest of the world was. Sizing her opportunity, Lizzie reached out again and strained with all her might.

She only just managed it. Luke let go as they finally reached the pavement. They had lost enough speed for him to land safely and then catch Lizzie as she fell past. He placed her on her feet. She was wincing at her hands which had become raw red, like they had received bad rope burns. She glanced up at her older teammate.

'I'm willing not to do that again in a hurry,' she volunteered.

Luke chuckled and looked around him. Everyone on the pavement around them was frozen with time staring up at the position the two assumed they had been seconds before. 'He finally got his act together,' Luke muttered and then added, 'ouch,' as Lizzie trod on his toes.

'You're not going to mention it to him,' Lizzie told him firmly.

'But...'

'You're not. The last thing we need now is another argument.'

Luke scowled but said nothing more. His relationship with Max Hardy hadn't been the same since their failed mission which caused the team to split up. Instead, Luke turned and began working his way through the crowd, trying hard not to touch anyone. Lizzie followed him, still rubbing her raw palms.

Max Hardy met them at the foot of another tall skyscraper several roads along. This was their hotel, although all their stuff had been cleared out earlier and into the helicopter they had "borrowed" from a SKUL agent a couple of weeks back. A dab of paint and nobody could tell that it had been previously owned by one of the UK's most wanted men. Without saying a word, except that next time plan B shouldn't be so dangerous, Max led the way to the elevator and the three of them departed without any more trouble.

Once in the air, Luke opened up his briefcase and began sorting through his files as Lizzie rubbed a soothing palm onto her palms and fingertips before wrapping them in a damp bandage. She winced as she tied the fabric off but refused help from both males. She snapped at Luke to tell Max where to fly to, before opening up her little box.

Inside was one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment in the world, although many people would argue with that. But to Lizzie, this was more dangerous than the atom bomb, or a nuclear missile. The little contraption that sat in the box, its syringe needle just seen among the wires and data strips, was a piece of the machine that changed Lizzie's life.

If she hadn't come into contact with that machine, she wouldn't be sitting in a stolen helicopter with the two men. She wouldn't have the job she did. She wouldn't even be the age she was.

Lizzie shut the lid of the box with a snap. She didn't want to think any more on it.

A little while later, Luke clambered into the back of the helicopter, followed shortly by Max. They had landed on the other side of a hill from a concrete Chinese factory, which they were planning on infiltrating. The thing in the box was just a prototype, their Japanese informers had said. This factory was apparently making hundreds of thousands of copies of this. If SKUL succeeded in making one machine, they were planning on selling the idea worldwide.

That was the Trio's worst nightmare.

'The plan is simple,' Luke told Lizzie, 'we break in. we destroy the equipment. We blow up the factory. We get out.'

'What about the workers in there?' Lizzie asked.

'We'll set off the fire alarm,' Max said, 'it will limit our time to get everything ready however, so we'll have to do that last.'

'Right,' Lizzie said monotonously. There was something bothering her.

The guys exchanges glances before Luke prodded Lizzie's knee. 'What's up?' he asked.

Lizzie glanced up at them, wide eyed innocence on her face, before her eyes dropped back down to the box on her lap. 'Nothing,' she muttered, 'just homesick.' Above her head, the boys rolled their eyes. That was Lizzie's excuse whenever there was something wrong with her but she didn't want to talk about it. It stemmed back from their days in training camp together, not a time the three of them wanted to relive.

'Can you ignore it just so we can complete this mission?' Luke asked, 'we're heading back to the UK after all this is over.' Lizzie took a deep breath and nodded. Luke smiled. 'Then let's do this.'

* * *

><p>The first part of the mission went smoothly. They infiltrated the factory with their regular efficiency. It involved taking out most of the security without anybody else noticing, which was a benefit later on when the Trio had to make their escape. Whilst Max scurried up to the head's office, Lizzie and Luke arranged the explosives around the main rooms where they could see lines of workers slowly piecing together the strange devices. They weren't aware of what the items were. They were just doing as they were told.<p>

Luke thought back to the statistics they had heard in the Japanese boardroom. Despite the thousands produced, they had said, only a random ten or so would work. The probabilities were low, but the results were astounding. Luke fingered the silvery slit across his right wrist and shivered. Astounding was just a matter of perspective, he thought. No matter what the probabilities said, ten was still ten more than Luke would have wanted to work.

Max emerged from the other side of the room and nodded. The other two members walked slowly towards him, avoiding guards and workers. They slipped into a back room in which Max had discovered the flammable substances they apparently used for storing certain items that were to be added to the contraptions. Max had soaked everything in the flammable liquid and was ready to set it alight. Luke prepared his features so that he resembled the factory's head of security. Lizzie hovered by the door, ready to help Max escape.

Max lit the match and dropped it.

That was when everything started to go downhill.

Luke burst out of the smoke filled room shouting, 'Fire! Fire! Smoke! Smoke! Out! Out!' He hit the fire alarm and the room erupted into pandemonium as the workers began fleeing for the exit. Working quickly, Lizzie and Max set off the first of the explosives in the second storage room along, destroying a majority of pieces for the contraptions.

But Luke was struggling to get the workers out as the fire swept into the first of the working areas. And, as Lizzie and Max hurried to the second set of explosives, a spark lit up too close to Max, who had been in a room filled with flammable liquid and so had quite a bit of it on his clothes. His clothes caught fire and Max had to drop and roll to cover the flames before they spread. Lizzie stopped to help him tug his shirt off, when Max ordered her to go ahead.

Lizzie, hating herself for leaving her teammate behind but knowing that this was their one opportunity to set back SKUL's plans for the machine by several months or so, obeyed and raced ahead to set off the second set of explosives in the second worker area. This one was clear of workers and Lizzie had dropped to her knees to light the second cord, when the sound of clapping caught her attention. And Lizzie lifted her head and her eyes met those that she thought she'd never see again.

On the balcony above her stood a woman that had been a guiding light in Lizzie's life. On the balcony above her stood a woman who had made Lizzie the person she was today. On the balcony above her stood a woman Lizzie had never believed would be outside of a barred cell again.

On the balcony above her, stood Jade Dixon-Halliday.

* * *

><p>'Recruits, line up!' The order was barked at the group of late teenagers lounging around on a pack of benches in a small gap between the campus buildings. Trying to cover up their groans as they worked their aching muscles to stand up, the group marched across the short stretch of grass to where the head operative of the training camp stood. Each teen stood to attention, trying to stand straight and not sway in the wind.<p>

The head operative nodded as they stood in a line before him and wandered down the line, checking each trainee. Finally, he came to the final three, whom he shook his head at.

The final three in the line were clearly younger than the rest. The oldest must have been about fifteen, a broad shouldered male with tight blonde curls and dark brown eyes. He was staring straight ahead, hands behind his back, totally at ease.

That couldn't be said of the other two, another boy and a girl. The second boy's long sandy hair was being blown into his face and tangling up with his glasses. The head operative smirked; he was going to get that boy's head shaved as soon as possible. He told him so; 'To keep that ridiculous mop out of your face'. The boy flushed as the rest of the older trainees sniggered.

The girl was trying hard to keep her green-hazel eyes staring ahead, but every so often they would wander sideways to where the head operative stood, then snap forwards again as he looked at her. She had plaited her long auburn hair back so that it wouldn't get in her way. The head operative considered making a joke that she should do the same to the boy next to her. He decided he would. The girl blushed as he did and stared down at her feet. The only response from the blond boy was that his fists clenched ever so slightly behind his back.

The head operative was pleased with the responses he had gotten from the younger two however, and so he turned away and strode back up the line, talking about the upcoming year of training. When his back was turned, the boy with the curly blond hair gave the other two an encouraging smile, which neither of them returned.

'...And so,' the head operative was saying as they tuned back in to his speech, 'we will be assigning you tutors. This is compulsory. Do not roll your eyes at me. If you act like a child you will be treated like a child, understood?'

The unfortunate trainee, who had large ears, closely cropped brown hair and a prominent nose, stood to attention and nodded hurriedly with wide brown eyes. The three at the end tried hard not to snigger with the rest of the trainees.

'That goes for all of you,' the head operator shouted, glaring down the line. The light tittering stopped abruptly. The head operator glared at them all before turning and facing a line of young men and women standing across the other side of the field from them. Now that they had the trainees' attention, the line began to advance across the drizzly field towards them.

'These shall be your tutors,' the head operator shouted, 'those of you who can count will have noticed that there are fewer tutor than there are of you. That is because we do not believe that you require one-on-one tuition. Some of you are adults and so we have respected that by assigning one tutor for every five students. Only those of you who are totally inept get the one-on-one tutorship.' He smirked down the line at the three at the end. They glowered ahead, not risking their positions on the course by complaining at his insults outright.

When the tutors were close enough for them to be individually defined, the head operator strode down the line, assigning each one to a group of four or five trainees. When he reached the youngest three, his sneer widened and he introduced each tutor and trainee in turn.

'Jones,' he snapped at the blond boy, 'your tutor shall be Christian Hancock.' The thickset black man he gestured at glared down at the blond trainee. 'Any jokes about his name will see you severely punished, is that understood?'

'Yes sir,' Jones replied, scowling inside at the giggles coming from further up the line and not bothering to mention that he wasn't the sort to joke about people's names. That was for children. He did not get on this training programme by acting like a child.

Disappointed he hadn't even managed to get a smirk out of the elder boy, the head operator moved onto the younger. 'Hardy,' he barked, 'your tutor shall be Brian Juniper.' He gestured at the wizened man standing in front of the young trainee. 'Any jokes about his age will see you severely punished, is that understood?'

'Yes sir,' Hardy replied, smiling slightly, if only out of relief, at his tutor. He would have been terrified if it had been a huge muscular man like Hancock, but the older gentleman didn't scare this trainee. In fact, he was glad about the man's age. With age came wisdom, but also a fighting style that Hardy would probably prefer, not having much muscle himself.

Secretly furious that he hadn't managed to get a response out of either of the youngest male trainees, the head operator moved on to the final trainee. Her stance had relaxed and she was examining her tutor with pure curiosity. This would make her an easy target.

'Evens,' the head operator shouted and the girl snapped at attention at once. But she was on edge, he could tell. 'This is your tutor, Jade Dixon-Halliday,' he gestured at the tall brunette woman standing across from the young girl. The two women exchanged the briefest of nods, the younger a little uncertainly. The head operator bent low and hissed in the girl's ear. 'And if I hear any trouble has been caused by you then...'

He didn't get much further as a force collided with the side of his head and sent him spinning to the ground. He leapt back onto his feet, furious and ready to batter the person responsible for that assault, when Jade Dixon-Halliday stepped forward and glared down at him. Despite being the woman in the situation, she had at least two inches on him. The heels didn't help.

'I would ask you,' she said coolly, 'to stop terrorising my student.' The head operator started his impression of a goldfish when Dixon-Halliday continued, 'need I remind you that these children did not get onto this programme out of luck. They are here because they are mature enough, and skilled enough, to cope. What they do not need is some bullying prejudice snake in the grass putting them down every few minutes, because they will no doubt be getting that from the rest of their group already.' Dixon-Halliday glared at the line of squirming trainees, most of whom had already made bad jokes about the youngest of them already. 'And if I hear that any more jokes have been made, I shall be speaking to your tutors about it. I believe that the fact that we can punish anyone as harshly as our dear head operator can was overlooked in his little speech. Thank you.'

Dixon-Halliday stepped back into the tutor line up. Her pupil was gazing at her back with open mouthed amazement. Now that they were facing one another again, Evens quickly shut her mouth and stood up straight, though her eyes still betrayed her wonder at her new tutor. Dixon-Halliday privileged her to a wink that caused the girl to flush pink.

The head operator's impression of a goldfish slowly came to a halt. He shook himself and was about to reprimand Dixon-Halliday for her actions when he noticed restlessness amongst the rest of the tutors. They were shifting subtly into prepared positions; ready to come to Dixon-Halliday's defence should the head operator start on her. So he decided to ignore what had just occurred and turned back to the rest of the trainees, many of whom had their mouths open and were staring at him, including the trainee with the big ears and nose. He snapped, 'are you trying to catch flies with those big gobs of yours?' the open mouths snapped shut.

The head operator's scowl deepened. He'd be having strong words with Agent Dixon-Halliday later. 'This morning will be a tutorial based exercise,' he shouted at the line, 'you shall be under the command of your tutors, who will be discovering your weaknesses and testing your limits. Understood?' The line nodded. 'Dismissed.' The head operator turned and strode down the line with the full intention of shouting at Dixon-Halliday for her actions. But when he reached the end of the line, the female agent had already disappeared, her pupil along with her. Juniper and Hardy were in discussion about pressure points, whilst Jones and Hancock appeared to be having a staring competition.

'Where did Evens and Dixon-?'

'No idea,' the four said instantly. Jones' eye colour changed from brown to blue, making the head operator start in surprise, but Hancock only raised his eyebrows. The head operator muttered something about women and strode away towards his office. Behind him, Jones made his nose the same shape as Hancock's, but the older man did nothing.

Meanwhile, two female agents were walking away from the rest, weaving in between the buildings. The older, taller one had an arm around the younger's shoulders and was chatting away happily, whilst the younger one listened in silent wonder. 'Honestly,' the older was saying, 'and he thinks he's scary? I have a two year old son whom I'm more terrified of, mainly because he keeps doing stupid things like falling down stairs. How he managed to break the lock on his cot I don't know.'

'I have a two year old sister who's doing silly things too,' the young girl said shyly. 'She fell in our neighbour's pond last summer.' The older woman nodded understandingly. The younger girl looked up at the older woman, a glint in her eyes, and added, 'I still don't know how she managed to get outside, over the fence and past the neighbour's dog in the first place.'

Dixon-Halliday stared down at the young girl and then threw back her head and laughed up at the grey drizzling clouds. 'Children can do silly things,' she chuckled. Evens nodded, a blush creeping across her face.

'Yes, Mam,' she murmured at the ground.

'Mam?' Dixon-Halliday questioned, amused at the term, 'please, call me Jade.'

Evens nodded in agreement. 'Yes... Jade.'

Jade Dixon-Halliday tilted her head to one side as she studied the young trainee under her arm. 'Do you have a name?' she asked teasingly. She knew the girl did, she'd seen it on the form.

Evens nodded again and lifted her head to meet Jade's eye. 'Lizzie,' she said, 'I'm Lizzie Evens.'

* * *

><p>Seventeen years later, Lizzie Evens had experienced a lot. She had succeeded in rising to one of the highest ranked agents to emerge from that batch of trainees. She had completed many missions with her teammates, Luke Jones and Max Hardy. She'd been re-aged by said teammates to a six year old and had to re-experience puberty and public schooling. She'd met a very cute boy, who had turned out to be her tutor's son.<p>

And now she was staring at the woman who had helped her start it all. Staring at her as if she was the enemy. Because that was what Jade Dixon-Halliday had become.

* * *

><p>Yes, Jade's out and back and ready to cause trouble.<p>

:) Please review; I need to motivation to stop revising and keep writing. ;)


	5. In the midst of the Flames

How long has it been since I updated any of my fanfics?

Too long is the correct answer because, sadly, I have no files on my Doc Manager. Thankfully though, I also have four months of practically doing nothing before uni so I have no excuses now!

Apologies to everyone and thank you for baring with me.

By the way, I didn't know there was a new season of MI9 until I caught a repeat the other day! Checking Wikipedia I discovered something. The BBC have totally stolen my idea for genetically modified children. I'm not impressed that they didn't ask me first :(

Disclaimer: I don't own MI High or any of the characters. But I do own the Trio and I should totally own the right to include superhuman children as part of the MI High plot. BBC, I demand the right to claim that!

* * *

><p>'Jade,' Lizzie murmured. In a different part of the factory, something exploded.<p>

Jade Dixon-Halliday stared down at her old pupil with a large smile upon her face. It wasn't the kind of smile Lizzie wanted to see. 'Lizzie...' she began.

'It's Lee to you,' Lizzie snapped.

Jade's smile widened. 'It will always be Lizzie to me,' she said, 'my old pupil, Elizabeth Evens. What is it like to be young again?'

'A pain,' Lizzie said grumpily, 'do you know what it's like to go through puberty twice? The growth pains were twice as bad and my periods started five years too early. My whole monthly cycle went haywire.'

'But...' Jade said with a slight tilt of the head. She knew it was there.

Lizzie scowled and looked away. 'But I don't regret it,' she said quietly.

'Hmm...' Jade said, raising her own head, 'how's Oscar?'

'Why do you care?' Lizzie said sourly, 'you don't act much like a mother to him anymore.'

'He's still my little boy.'

Lizzie stared at her old mentor. 'What happened to you, Jade?' she asked, 'what went wrong?'

'Nothing went wrong,' Jade informed her, 'I just saw the light. Let me show you.' With that, Jade jumped down and Lizzie ran to meet her. Forearms collided and Jade tried to sweep away Lizzie's legs, but the younger girl dodged. The fight continued as another explosion shook the factory and debris began to rain among them.

* * *

><p>The boys met each other at the selected meeting place fifteen minutes later. After another five, they were choking on smoke, trying to avoid the licking flames and were concerned that there was still no sign of their female companion.<p>

'What could have happened to her?' Max yelled above the still blaring fire alarm.

'No idea!' bellowed back Luke, who then spiralled into a coughing fit from smoke inhalation.

'What should we do?' Max questioned as he stopped time so they could avoid the rather worryingly large chuck on ceiling that would have squashed them otherwise.

'We can't stay here,' Luke stated, 'but we can't leave her here. We need to locate her, fast.'

'She's normally the best at locating people under these conditions,' Max muttered.

'I know,' Luke growled, 'the smoke masks her scent and the sounds of destruction cover her voice. Relying on eyes alone to find someone is hopeless.'

'How do we do it then? We've tried her communicator and for some reason she's not picking up. You don't think she's really... this time?'

'No,' Luke said, though he sounded like he was trying to keep his voice calm, 'no, fire wouldn't get her. She can put it out; just create a vacuum and out it goes.'

'Then what's keeping her?' Max insisted.

'Well, if you two hadn't split up...' Luke began.

'What would you prefer me to have done?' Max snapped, 'burnt? We needed to split up anyway; we had different things on our agendas. Hence meeting here! Nobody would look for the culprits in the midst of their own destruction.'

Outside they could see the lines of workers watching as all their hard work went up in smoke. The minimal security there was was currently pacing about trying to work out what to do, or how it could have begun. The fire service hadn't even arrived yet; the boys could see the trucks coming down the only road to the factory, like a swarm of bright red ants.

'We need to leave soon,' Luke said, 'otherwise the chopper will be found. And then our only mode of transport will be gone.'

'We could always steal another,' Max commented.

'That takes effort.'

There was a moment of awkward silence between the boys.

'Let's go find Lizzie,' Luke said at last.

'Yeah,' Max muttered, 'let's.'

* * *

><p>Lizzie's lip was split.<p>

Jade would have a black eye tomorrow morning.

Lizzie was limping after Jade had caught the back of her knee.

Jade's nose was matted with blood.

Lizzie had slash marks made by Jade's very sharp nails down her left arm, which caused her to flinch whenever she moved it.

Jade was clutching her side, which she believed now housed at least two ribs broken by Lizzie's shockwave backed punches.

Both were panting, their vision was beginning to be effected by the smoke and heat and neither wanted to be the first to back down.

'You've gotten better,' Jade congratulated her formal pupil. 'Consider me impressed.'

'I've had plenty of time to practice.'

'How long has it been since we last fought? Twelve years.'

'More than that surely; it was before you turned traitor.'

'Ah, we should do this more often.'

'Come back to MI9 and it may be possible.'

'Come join SKUL, it's more fun!'

'How can SKUL still exist with the Grandmaster imprisoned?'

'Give us a few more weeks and that won't be the case.' Jade smiled. 'I've broken free. He can too.'

'How?'

'I had help.'

'Obviously.'

'There is a young man who is desperate to make his dream come true, and having his allies imprisoned isn't helping that.'

Lizzie's eyes widened. 'No...'

'So he thought: if I change the situation then everything will be back on track again.'

'Alex! That moron!'

Jade laughed. 'He saw the light, just as I did, and you will too.'

'Jade,' Lizzie said worriedly, 'something's happened to you. Something must have happened to you. How did you become like you?'

'I took it,' Jade said happily, 'I saw everything!'

'It?' Lizzie queried, 'what's "it"?'

'Join SKUL and find out.'

'No way!' Lizzie said and braced herself, 'I don't know what happened to you after you joined, but this wasn't supposed to happen!'

'What was?' Jade cried wildly and launched herself at Lizzie.

Lizzie dodged. She tried to gain advantage by knocking Jade off balance, whilst keeping the pain off her bad leg, but Jade jabbed at Lizzie's bleeding left arm, forcing her to withdraw. She tried the same tactic, aiming for Jade's injured side with a kick, but Jade blocked it and aimed for Lizzie's face. Off balance on the wrong leg, Lizzie had to hit the floor in order to dodge. Jade stood over her, feeling triumphant but Lizzie lashed upwards, this time successfully connecting with Jade's rib cage. One weakened rib snapped.

Jade staggered back in pain but Lizzie wasn't giving her a chance to think. She flipped upright and charged at her opponent.

Then Jade did something incredibly sneaky. She collapsed as Lizzie approached, pretending to be overcome with pain. 'Four broken ribs,' she gasped, 'I think one has punctured my lung.'

'What?' Lizzie skidded and stopped, 'what!' She crouched down next to her former tutor. 'Are you going to be okay? Wait! I'll help!' She got no further as Jade chucked a handful of soot and broken glass in her eyes, then tackled her to the ground. An elbow caught Lizzie in the face. A foot made contact with her stomach. Lizzie hit the ground, winded, as Jade straddled her, pinning her arms to the ground, finally victorious.

'You fool!' Jade sneered, 'as if you believed that! You're as gullible as Oscar!'

'It's because we still believe,' came the whispered reply, choked on the tears that leaked out of Lizzie's closed eyes and that she could no longer hold back, 'we still hope that there is some good in you, a good we want to rekindle.'

'The goodness in me was destroyed a long time ago!' Jade hissed. She raised her fist. 'Goodbye, Lizzie. I don't think your abilities can help you avoid the flames if you're unconscious.'

'We hoped,' Lizzie was murmuring, paying the currently winning enemy no attention, 'we still believed. Why, Jade? WHY?'

Lizzie's eyes snapped open as Jade's fist began to descend. Pain, betrayal, anguish and anger were the emotions that Jade read in them. For a split millisecond, Jade's fist hesitated.

Lizzie's palms smashed into the floor.

The air hit the ground and rebounded, throwing Jade off Lizzie. The elder woman flew backwards and landed painfully. She watched open mouthed as Lizzie stood up. Anger fuelled her powers which dragged the air towards her, building it up like the calm builds up to the storm, and with the air came the flickering ends of flame.

Was she trying to summon the fire to her? Jade wondered. And for the briefest of seconds, she hoped her pupil would succeed.

'Lizzie!' A shout echoed from one of the few corridors that remained reasonably usable.

In that instant, all anger drained from Lizzie and with it went the air and flame. 'Luke?' she called back, her voice beginning to fade as fatigue began to creep in. Jade could feel it too on the edges of her consciousness.

Lizzie's two male companions appeared from the flames to their partner's right. 'Lizzie!' the elder, taller one cried in relief, rushing to her, 'are you alright?'

The one with glasses stopped when he noticed Jade. 'Isn't that...?'

Jade thought that this would be a good time to leave. Fortunately, one of her companions burst onto the scene at that very moment in a mild form of panic. 'Agent Dixon-Halliday,' he called into the smoke, 'it's time to go, Ma'm.'

'Very good,' she replied, and with a less powerful than she had hoped jump and a bit of scrambling up the banister, she was beside him, hoping he didn't comment on how awful she looked and the fact that she was probably coming away worse than her opponent. She made a mental note to threaten him severely as soon as she was certain the Trio couldn't eavesdrop.

'Until we meet again, Lizzie!' she called down to her coughing enemy, 'give my love to Oscar, won't you?'

'Jade! Don't!' Lizzie screamed after her, 'come back!' then collapsed in a coughing fit. Jade's tackle had done more damage than she had previously thought.

'Lizzie!' Luke yelled down her ear. 'We have to go. Now!' Jade had already disappeared into the smoke filled air. The wall above where she had made her exit was cracking and going to crumble, blocking their path after her.

'No!' Lizzie yelled. She turned her attention to Max. 'Freeze time! We're going after her! Now!'

'She's not our priority at the moment!'

'Now!'

The boys looked at one another. 'Lizzie,' Luke said after they had exchanged the briefest of nods, 'you leave us with no choice.'

If Lizzie hadn't had a pounding headache, or had inhaled so much smoke, or been in quite a considerable bit of pain, she might have understood what was coming next. As it was however all she said was, 'huh?'

The side of Luke's hand slammed into the back of her neck.

Lizzie made a mental note to give them earache for this, when the darkness expanded and she slipped peacefully into oblivion.

* * *

><p>I really hope this chapter makes up for the months and months you've spent waiting. I will try and get the next one out ASAP and if I don't please ask where the hell it is because I shouldn't have any excuses left. :P<p> 


	6. That Stupid SKUL Agent

Hey, sorry, I was expecting to get this out at least two weeks ago, only my laptop caught a virus which slowed it down considerably. It is very hard to write a chapter when you have to wait five minutes for the sentence you just typed to appear. That's how slow it was. But it's fixed now (hopefully) so the next chapter shouldn't take as long to complete.

In response to doctorwhofan4eva: don't worry if you don't see a character for some time (particularly the main few), it probably means that they'll appear in the next one. Or you've spotted something. Mostly likely, it's me switching between scenarios.

Disclaimer: I don't own any MI9 characters. I own the Trio.

Warning: Minor swearing occurs. Only about twice, but I still felt I had to highlight it.

* * *

><p>Oscar tried to pick up the pace as he chased the SKUL operative down the long corridors. "Shit" was the only word currently going through his head, accompanied by the occasional "Dad's going to kill me". Oscar knew deep down in his heart that his father wouldn't, but he could make his son's life more of a living hell for the next few days that it currently was.<p>

It had been Edward's idea to do a father-son mission together, a sort of bonding time between the two men. Mission was simple: locate and capture the SKUL operative who had infiltrated the political intelligence side of MI9. According to the Head, no important information had been leaked as yet, but with upcoming changes in the MI9 management and leadership groups, they were taking no chances. Which was why they had called on the aid of Edward, who was a known face in MI9 therefore would not be deemed as suspicious as a newcomer to the scene, but was not so attached to MI9 as for his mission to spread throughout the section. Being seen with Oscar should have lowered suspicion even more that they were seeking out a SKUL operative.

However, somehow, this had gone wrong. The SKUL agent had taken one look at Oscar as he innocently wormed his way through the desks of the political division towards said operative (after they had run background checks, scans and hacked the agent's computer) and bolted for the door. Whilst the other desk workers looked stunned that their colleague was running from a known MI9 agent, who had appeared to them merely wanting to ask advice or other such innocent actions, Oscar had cursed and begun sprinting after him. The plan had been for Oscar to ask for information on a certain politician the SKUL agent was meant to be monitoring, to ask that this information was brought to one of the board rooms under the pretence that it was needed in some sort of meeting, then they could corner him there. Somehow, the agent had seen through that.

Or fled out of fear.

But that meant that he knew Oscar was onto him, and Oscar wasn't sure how that was possible.

So now Oscar was trying to catch up with the fleeing SKUL agent whilst his father attempted to cut him off via a different route. And, although Oscar would rather die than admit it, he was beginning to be thankful of Edward's early morning warm up running sessions. The stitch he had been expecting twenty minutes ago after running full pelt down the corridors of MI9 was only now starting to form.

Then the SKUL agent rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. Oscar slowed to a jog and stopped, panting, blocking the agent's path back.

Edward Dixon-Halliday was blocking the path ahead. He wasn't alone; Stark seemed to have been informed that the SKUL operative was making a break for it and had called for back-up because accompanying Edward were half a dozen heavily armed SWAT team members. Oscar could hear about the same number jogging up the corridor behind him.

Edward took a step forward. 'This is the end of the line,' he called to the panicking SKUL agent. 'Give up any weapons you have and come peacefully or we shall have to use force.' Behind him, Oscar saw the SWAT team members draw out a variety of guns, tasers, batons and other long bits of metal or plastic that would hurt if someone hit you with them. They seemed as if they would prefer it if the SKUL agent made them use force.

Hesitantly, with a shaking hand, the SKUL agent reached round and pulled a handgun from his back pocket. He held it in the air so they could all acknowledge it. They were also beginning to acknowledge something else: the loud noise of a helicopter turbine.

Although Oscar couldn't see, the SKUL agent had begun to grin. He flicked the gun round in his hand so that he had his finger on the trigger. Then, to their amazement, he pointed the gun at the full length windows that ran down the entire end of their corridor.

And pulled the trigger.

The window smashed. The agent gave a mocking wave, took a run up and leapt out of the window and through the open side door of the black helicopter now hovering alongside the building.

* * *

><p>Lizzie had woken up about five hours after the escape of her former tutor from the ruins of a SKUL factory. The boys had carried her out and flown to the nearby settlement of the Chinese branch of the MIA. They had all gone through various medical tests, checking they hadn't inhaled too much smoke and tending to their various injuries. Max still had burn cream coated down his right hand side when Lizzie kicked down the door to his room and demanded to see Luke. Fortunately for the oldest member of the Trio, she had then broken down in a coughing fit and been escorted, gently but firmly, back to her own room.<p>

The earache was saved for the journey back by helicopter when they had all recuperated. It had helped that whenever Lizzie attempted a shouting match in the hospital, she would start coughing and the doctors would intervene. Instead, Lizzie held back her anger so she could let it all go when the boys couldn't escape: trapped in a metal shell hovering thousands of miles above the ground. The MIA had offered them plane tickets, but they thought flying by helicopter, whilst a lot slower, would be more useful as they could stop in various countries on the way back and see contacts.

An underground passage had been discovered under the factory after the blazing fire had been quenched. Although the Trio were in no fit state to explore it, the MIA and the Chinese secret service sent agents down it. They discovered the exit miles away. All members of the Trio were certain that some of the machine parts must have been saved by Jade and her companions and so now they were pulling out all their contacts in order to track her down, or what could have happened to the pieces.

Three days it took them to fly back to England, refuelling along the way. They had stopped off with a couple of contacts along the way talking through best ideas for the future. Most of them were people Luke had met over the years he had spent looking for Lizzie, but one was a very old friend – Christian Hancock, Luke's old tutor and now a member of the MIA. 'Always wanted to retire abroad,' he had joked when they had first been reunited, 'but they just couldn't let me go.' Lizzie had felt particularly uncomfortable watching him with Luke so soon after seeing Jade for the first time in years.

Now the three of them sat in silence as they neared London. The homesickness that they hadn't realised had been hiding within them now sprang to the surface. They all had people they wanted to see. But before that, they had to report to MI9 about Jade.

'Hey,' said Luke as they neared one of the MI9 new headquarters, updated and in modernised buildings, 'isn't that Oscar?'

Although they were aiming for the helicopter landing pad on the roof, Luke's eyes were the best and had spotted the blonde male through the ceiling-floor windows stretching across the sides of the building. Lizzie and Max crowded round to look. 'Possibly,' Max conceded.

'Let's see what's going on,' Lizzie said, sounding the most excited she had since the Jade incident.

As Max manoeuvred the helicopter alongside the building, Lizzie moved to the back of the helicopter and threw the side door open with the intention of leaping across and giving them all a scare. She was a little surprised therefore when a man smashed through the windows, made it through the door and slammed it shut as she dodged back to avoid him and broken glass. She landed on her left arm and pain shot through the slash marks Jade had left her with.

'Good timing!' the man shouted, 'let's get back to SKUL HQ, quickly!'

The Trio looked at one another. As good an opportunity this was, they were too tired from their journey and injuries to bother. Instead they glared at the SKUL agent who had just entered.

He blinked at them. 'What?'

* * *

><p>Oscar rarely heard his father swear, but this was one of the rare occasions. 'Shit!' Edward swore loudly, over the sudden rushing wind from the shattered window. He met his son by the broken glass staring at the hovering helicopter. Then they paused, wondering why it wasn't moving.<p>

'Shouldn't they... escape?' Oscar was asking when the door opened again and the SKUL agent reappeared with someone else.

'Get back,' Edward ordered his son as the figures leapt across the gap, through the window. Lizzie landed, scowling and grasping the SKUL agent by the collar.

'Lose something?' she questioned, dropping him on the ground. He was immediately grabbed by three or four SWAT team members who were looking forward to dishing out a bit of punishment to the almost-escapee.

'Lizzie!' Oscar exclaimed happily, and then noticed the state of his friend, 'what happened to you?'

'Blew up a factory,' Lizzie decided to go with for the moment, 'sort of...'

'And the helicopter...' Edward motioned to the black machine that had begun to rise upwards towards the helipad.

Lizzie watched it disappear from sight before shrugging, 'present from SKUL.' She shifted awkwardly, not meeting the eyes of either man, even though Oscar went to hug her.

'What's wrong?' he asked her.

Lizzie paused, took a deep breath, and then paused again. 'He jumped...' she said slowly.

'What?'

'He jumped,' Lizzie repeated, 'from here into our helicopter... without hesitating, without thinking it was odd that a helicopter was hovering outside the window. For all he knew, as it turns out it was an MI9 helicopter. But he still jumped, believing that he would be safe. When he arrived, he ordered us to fly back to SKUL HQ...'

'And you refused?' Edward sounded surprised, 'I thought you would have used the opportunity to infiltrate what remains of SKUL.'

'I just blew up a factory,' Lizzie waved the point aside, 'don't you see? He was expecting a helicopter...'

Now they understood. 'The helipad,' Edward said firmly and the three agents rushed off, through the crowds of SWAT members who still hadn't got it.

* * *

><p>'That was interesting,' Luke said as the helicopter rose slowly up the side of the MI9 HQ.<p>

Max didn't respond. As Luke looked questioningly at his companion, he said quietly, 'he was expecting a helicopter...'

'Huh?' Luke asked as they rose higher than the roof and looked down upon the helipad.

That was currently in use.

Occupied by a SKUL helicopter.

'Oh,' said Luke, finally understanding.

'Lizzie will have noticed,' Max said as he pulled the controller to keep the helicopter stationary in the air.

'So she'll be appearing soon,' Luke muttered, 'not as quick as usual. Judging by her wounds, she won't be using her powers for some time.'

'What do we do?' Max asked, looking to his elder companion.

Luke pressed his hands together in thought. 'See what happens if we try and land,' he said.

Max obeyed.

A bullet passed through the windscreen and embedded itself in the roof above Max's head. Max brought the helicopter back up again.

'Maybe not,' Luke said. He thought again. It was interrupted by someone shouting through a loudspeaker, 'we have hostages and are not afraid to shoot. Fly away and nobody gets hurt.' Through the windscreen they could see a couple of SKUL agents and the MI9 operatives they had overpowered.

'We told MI9 we were coming, didn't we?' Max murmured.

'Yeah, at Christian's house.'

'Did we say that we were in a stolen SKUL helicopter?'

'I did tell Christian... it was a fun story.'

'The MI9 agents must have mistake their helicopter for ours, let them land and then...' Max groaned. 'What do we do?'

'Can you stop time?'

'Possibly.'

'How long for?'

'Not long.'

'Long enough for me to drop to the ground?'

'From our current position, no. Currently, we are hovering approximately twenty floors up, at a guess... You mean to drop down on the helipad.'

'Yeah.'

'Possibly. If I fly over it.'

'Let's do that then,' Luke said, unfastening himself and getting into position by the door. 'Ready.'

'Ready.'

Max moved the craft forward, as if to do as was suggested. As they flew over the landed copter, Luke opened the door.

And Lizzie kicked down the door to the roof.

It was fortunate for all, most particularly to those kneeing on the helipad with a gun to the temple, that Max stopped time at that moment, for it turned out that one of the SKUL members was trigger happy. As the door to the roof collided with the wall, he jumped, half turned and his finger, out of reflex, tightened. As the trigger reached half way to releasing a capsule of metal into the brain of the cowering man before him, Max's time stop activated, giving Lizzie enough time to charge across the concrete and reach the MI9 agent; and Luke the time to drop from the open door of the helicopter and reach the second agent.

Lizzie was just pulling the MI9 agent aside when time restarted, she felt the air shift behind her and she managed to fall away as the bullet shot through where she had been and out into open air. She fell heavily with the MI9 agent on top of her and her left arm bleeding again. The SKUL agent, though stunned at Lizzie's sudden appearance, turned the gun on her.

'Lizzie!' Oscar bellowed. He raced over the roof top and tackled the SKUL agent roughly to the ground, gun skidding away over the concrete. Luke had already disarmed and knocked cold the second one.

Slowly, the drone of the Trio's helicopter returned as Max came back to land it next to SKUL's.

'Are you alright?' Lizzie asked the MI9 agent she had saved.

'Are you?' he responded, staring at her bandaged left arm.

Lizzie looked down. There was a horizontal cut, staining the surrounding stretch of white bandage red with blood. 'Oh,' she said, 'I didn't avoid it completely.'

'Let me have a look,' Oscar instructed, kneeling beside.

'I'm fine!' Lizzie said hurriedly, pulling away as she realised what Oscar would also see if he removed the bandage.

Oscar stared at her. Lizzie held it for as long as she dared, before looking away and holding out her arm. Carefully, Oscar began to unwrap the white linen. After he had exposed her upper arm to fresh air, he paused gazing at Lizzie's other wounds. 'How did you get these?' he asked, running his finger gently down one slash mark.

'Jade...' Lizzie murmured, too quietly for Oscar to hear.

'What?' he asked her.

Lizzie inhaled sharply and looked up with tears in her eyes. 'Your mother,' she said before she broke down completely.

* * *

><p>Oscar and Lizzie sat next to one another outside Stark's office whilst Luke and Edward discussed Jade inside. Well, Luke discussed it; Edward ranted at Stark for more than fifteen minutes. Every so often, the pair would catch phrases such as "right to know", "husband", "mother", "Why didn't you tell us?" and "China!"<p>

Lizzie had her head resting on Oscar's shoulder. His arm was round her and his hand rested on the fresh bandages that bound her left arm. 'Sounds like you've had a rough few days,' Oscar said at length.

Lizzie huffed. 'Yeah, so much fun,' she said in monotone. Behind them Edward said something about "incompetence" and Luke asked him to put something down.

'What are you doing now?'

Lizzie shrugged. 'The plan was visit a hell on earth and beat a few into some sort of shape before going off somewhere else to beat up a few more people. But right now, I don't feel like beating anybody.'

'Fun,' Oscar said sarcastically, 'well, I'd love to see how that hell compares to the one I'm currently experiencing.'

Lizzie lifted her head from his shoulder. 'Do you mean right this very minute?'

Oscar backtracked hurriedly. 'No!' he protested, 'no! No! I didn't! I meant the camp, sorry, the camp...'

Lizzie burst out laughing. 'Hell on earth is it?' she asked teasingly.

'We call it that,' Oscar agreed, staring at her in confusion as she laid her head back on his shoulder. 'Why?'

'Nothing,' Lizzie sang happily.

* * *

><p>And there's some nice fluff to end it. :)<p>

Sorry again about the lateness of the update. I hope the next one will be sooner.  
>If technology doesn't fail me again :P<p> 


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